Chapter 224: Three Criminals, One Queen, and the Extremely Poor Decision to Babysit
Chapter 224: Three Criminals, One Queen, and the Extremely Poor Decision to Babysit
Elyn’s POV
Ysera blinked.
Once.
Then she blinked again.
Then her brows drew together slightly, her confusion clear as she looked at me.
"Your Majesty," she said carefully, "what do you mean?"
I didn’t answer her.
Instead, I leaned back slightly in my chair and looked directly at the demon who had been arguing with the succubus child minutes ago.
"Azerion."
Silence. The Syrenthis demon suddenly found the far wall extremely interesting.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Azerion," I called again.
There was nothing. He didn’t even blink this time.
Oh? So this was what we were doing today.
I folded my arms. Well, two can play at that game.
"If you do not answer me," I said calmly, "I will make sure you do not get any sweets for an entire day."
That did it.
Azerion’s head snapped toward me so fast I was surprised it didn’t detach from his body. His eyes widened in pure horror.
"A full day?!" he repeated, like I had just sentenced him to eternal suffering.
I tilted my head slightly. "Do I look like I’m joking?"
"But I can’t live without sweets. I can’t even breathe without them," he said to me.
"Really?" I asked him. "That’s news to me. I had no idea," I said nonchalantly.
He stared at me for a moment as if trying to see if I’d really go through with my words.
"You shouldn’t doubt her, Azerion. She will go through with her words," Vaelory said.
Rin nodded. "Don’t forget that my lady punished Vaelory for not doing her job properly."
I almost gave in at that. I didn’t do anything of the sort, but Vaelory nodded, agreeing with Rin. Again, for two people who always argued, how were they always in sync with each other?
"Did you forge my signature?" I asked Azerion.
He winced.
"That sounds... bad when you say it like that," he muttered.
"Are you going to answer me or not? Or do you perhaps not like the sweets you always get every day?" I asked him.
Azerion’s shoulders dropped at that. He released a deep sigh before he spoke.
"I didn’t forge it," he told me.
I raised an eyebrow at that.
"Oh?"
"I just... borrowed it. That’s different," he told me.
I stared at him.
"You borrowed my signature?" I asked him.
"No, the stamp," he told me.
Oh wow, never in my life did I think that would make things better. A child stealing my stamp and not my signature from right under my watch? Perfect. Extremely perfect.
He shifted slightly, then continued. "But I only did it because I wanted to see Aziren. And Aziren wanted you to see his cousin too so we could all have fun together." He paused. "So we planned it."
There was a beat of silence at that.
They planned it?
They... I took a deep breath. No need to get worked up over something like this after all.
"Who," I said, "was the mastermind?"
Again, the silent treatment was given. At least he was blinking this time. Azerion turned and looked elsewhere.
And he was making a great show of looking at absolutely nothing.
"Azerion. Who was the mastermind?" I asked him again. "Do you not value your snacks?"
He gave me a look, then with a straight face said, "I can forfeit my sweets for this, but I made a pinky promise not to tell."
A pinky promise... wow. Use my words against me, why don’t you?
I turned to Aziren then, since I wasn’t going to get the answer from Azerion.
He looked down at the floor immediately, avoiding me.
I turned to Zayrion.
He looked down too. His red bead swayed once and then went still.
Three children. Three guilty consciences. Not a single one willing to crack.
I almost admired it.
Almost.
Ysera sighed.
"It was Zayrion," she said.
The reaction was immediate.
All three of them gasped in shock. Their faces scrunched up in abject shock and betrayal.
Aziren turned to Ysera with his entire face scrunched up. "I don’t like you, mummy," he announced.
Ysera laughed.
It was soft and warm and entirely unbothered. "I know you love me," she told him. "So that doesn’t bother me at all."
Aziren’s nose scrunched further. He had no immediate response to that, which I suspected was because she was right and he knew it.
Ysera turned to me then, and her expression settled back into something more composed.
"Your Majesty, I apologise for disturbing you," she said. "I’ll take the children back."
Aziren’s ears drooped immediately. Zayrion’s tails lowered too, their red tips pointing sadly at the floor.
"Why?" Aziren asked.
"Because the queen is tired," Ysera told him simply. "And while I am very impressed with what you three managed to pull off—"
"Very impressed?" Zayrion asked, perking up slightly.
"Of course. The fact that you could fool me and your parents—that’s a job well done," she said proudly.
Why she was praising them, I wouldn’t understand, and I wasn’t even willing to understand.
"But even at that, I cannot let you inconvenience Her Majesty," she said.
Aziren turned to me.
Those bright eyes found mine and just... stayed there.
Big. Warm. Doing that thing they did where they somehow got softer the longer he looked at me.
"Can I stay?" he asked.
His voice was quiet.
"I just missed you," he said. "And I wanted to show Zayrion to you too."
I looked at him.
At those eyes.
At the little flames in his hair that were doing absolutely nothing to help me say no. Never in my life did I think I’d be so enamored by a child that had flames in his hair.
I exhaled and then turned to Ysera.
"Leave them with me," I said.
Ysera’s brows lifted. "Your Majesty—"
"I’ll watch over them."
She hesitated. "Are you certain? Zayrion alone is..." She glanced at her nephew, who was now standing with his hands clasped behind his back, looking as innocent as a child with two guilty tails could manage. "A lot of work," she finished carefully.
I looked at Zayrion and then turned to Ysera.
"Velira and Azerion are already here," I said. "And I like children." I shrugged. "How much work could it be?"